The women vacuum
The women vacuum the house into their lungs
The women vacuum the house into their lungs
And many are transformed into trees laden with nests—the women,
I mean—despite the houses displaying roofs slanted down
Under the weight of birds seeking shelter.
It is at the children’s window that the women breathe
Sitting on the steps gazing at them and many
Become stairs
Many women become landscapes
Trees teeming with climbing children who dangle
From branches—from mother’s necks—despite the glowing trees
Bursting with buds
The women inhale
And continuously generate. Become orchards.
They tidy up the house
They set the table
Around the heart.
Daniel Faria (1971–1999) was a novice at the Benedictine Monastery of Singeverga near Oporto, Portugal, until his sudden death at age twenty-eight. While still a student, he won prizes for his poetry, but he considered Explanation of Trees and of Other Animals (1998) to be his first mature work. Faria was a romantic visionary in the tradition of St. John of the Cross, Hölderlin, Rilke and—in Portugal—Teixeira de Pascoaes and Herberto Helder.
Paulo da Costa is a writer, editor, and translator from Portuguese. Paulo’s first book of fiction, The Scent of a Lie, received several awards. His poetry and fiction have been published widely in literary magazines around the world and translated into Italian, Spanish, Serbian, Slovenian, and Portuguese. www.paulodacosta.com
